Houses of Parliament report on women in science

A report published today by the UK Houses of Parliament on Women in STEM Careers, featuring evidence submitted by Portia, stated: "It is astonishing that despite clear imperatives and multiple initiatives to improve diversity in STEM, women still remain under-represented at senior levels across every discipline." We applaud the thoroughness of the collected evidence that the report has put together showing that women continue to have a harder time advancing in science than men. The compelling nature of the evidence, however, is not reflected with an equal impact in the proposed recommendations, which lack both specificity and strength in advising what needs to be done to shift the proportion of women in senior roles above the current 17%. More comprehensive and detailed recommendations can be found in the Roadmap for Action for North America, which will be published very soon and will be available through the US National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as Portia's website. The Roadmap is a product of an extensive multi-stakeholder consultation and collaboration, that took place at the 3rd Gender Summit, to identify specific short-, medium- and long-term actions for the respective stakeholder groups to take. Read the full report and more on the Houses of Parliament website.